Thai boy’s recovery helps to calm bird flu pandemic fears

A THAI boy tested positive for bird flu yesterday, but doctors said he was recovering and there was no sign he caught the virus from his infected father who died earlier this week, calming fears of a human pandemic.

Ronarit Benpad, seven, who was treated with anti-flu drug Tamiflu in the early stages of his infection, had recovered his appetite and his temperature had returned to normal, although he would remain under observation for two weeks, doctors said.

Ronarit’s father became Thailand’s 13th official bird flu victim when he died on Wednesday in a resurgence of the virus in east and southeast Asia which has fanned fears of the H5N1 strain mutating into a form that jumps from person to person.

Since breaking out in late 2003 in South Korea, H5N1 has killed more than 60 people in four Asian countries and reached as far west as European Russia, Britain, Turkey and Romania, tracking the paths of migratory birds.

Romania said yesterday it had detected a new suspected case close to its eastern border with Moldova as governments in Europe and Africa move to halt the spread of the virus.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) sought to ease fears by saying the risk to humans in Europe remains “very low”.

In Indonesia, fears fanned by the health minister about a possible human-to-human transmission eased after tests on a father and son hospitalised in Jakarta proved negative.

Amid growing fears about the spread of the virus, Tamiflu’s maker, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche AG, has come under pressure to pump up output by any means possible. The company agreed on Thursday to meet four generic drug makers with a view to possible tie-ups.

Activists who put pressure on drugs companies to make AIDS treatments accessible in Africa urged Roche to renounce its rights on the drug in the developing world.

Nevertheless, experts say Tamiflu, which is generically known as oseltamivir, cannot be regarded as a “cure-all” for H5N1 as it must be administered in the early stages of infection - and will in some cases not work due to anti-viral resistance.

The WHO says 61 people have now died of bird flu since the H5N1 strain resurfaced in 2003 after a brief outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997.

So far 41 have died in Vietnam, 13 in Thailand, four in Cambodia and three in Indonesia. Six people died in the Hong Kong outbreak.